Posted: Mon, Jul 15, 2002, 8:31 PM ET (0031 GMT)
The European Space agency announced Monday that it has restarted Venus Express, a Venus orbiter mission, just a little over a month after the project had been apparently killed. ESA officials approved Venus Express on July 11, the agency announced Monday, after receiving a request from Alain Bensoussan, chairman of the ESA Council. ESA had planned to include Venus Express as part of its reconfigured program of science missions in May, but withdrew the mission from the plan at the last moment over funding concerns. The decision is contingent on all participating nations confirming their funding; all but Italy have elected to do so, and Italy has until October 15 to decide. Venus Express will be based on the same spacecraft bus as Mars Express and is scheduled for launch in 2005. The spacecraft will concentrate on studies of the planet's thick atmosphere as well as the first radar studies of the planet's subsurface, using instruments developed as backups for Mars Express and Rosetta.

Related Links:

•  ESA press release about Venus Express